One of my favorite experts on movies and 007 is Jamie Skinner from Down Under, who keeps me abreast of things Bond. Here’s his latest — definitely worth a read. There’s been no time to fly for a new Bond movie since 2021 and one not expected until about 2027, but there is a new English spy film out recently called Black Bag. It stars two James Bond film alumni, Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris, and two actors who have at different times been considered to play Agent 007, Michael Fassbender and Regé-Jean Page. Doing press for the film, actress Cate Blanchett made a reference worthy of the “real” James Bond, comparing this spy movie’s director, Steven Soderbergh, to a peregrine falcon because “his frame rate operates at an entirely different speed to everybody else’s.” Interesting to note also is that the MacGuffin in Black Bag is a lethal malware called “Severus” and there is actually a species of falcon called Falco severus, perhaps more commonly known as an Oriental hobby. Co-star Michael Fassbender also said of Soderbergh: “He is like a sharp-sighted bird. When he walks into a room, he clocks everything.” The favorite catch-phrase of his George Woodhouse character in the film, which is also his mantra, is: “I don’t like liars” – but he doesn’t mean Lyrebirds though. And these aren’t just the only bird references. When the film debuted, Blanchett and her co-star in the film, Tom Burke, were starring in a six-week London stage play production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (1895-1896) at the Barbican. In Black Bag, look out for a flying drone camera shot of an attack on a vehicle with villains in it. The camera swoops down from the sky like a bird of prey, perhaps even like a peregrine falcon or Falco severus – and it really is all seen from a view to a kill. You can see a lot of this scene in the trailer below. So remember. The name’s Bag. Black Bag. It’s still playing in theaters and is also now available to view on VOD/PVOD in the USA. [trailer]

This spring I’ll be speaking about the real James Bond at New Jersey Audubon’s Spring Weekend in Cape May in late May (date and time TBA) and two venues on Maine’s Mount Desert Island: *The Jesup Library on June 11 at 6:30 p.m. https://www.jesuplibrary.org/events/jimwright * For the Friends of Acadia on June 12,. The talk is part of the Friends’ “Pints for a Purpose” series of summer talks. It’s all related to my book The Real James Bond, published by Schiffer Publishing. Bond spent his summers on MDI his entire life. Stay tuned.

When I wrote The Real James Bond several years ago, I figured there’d be another 007 movie by now. No such luck. Now it appears that the creative logjam has been unstuck, with Amazon buying the key rights to the spy franchise for $1 billion. Yep. You read it right. I wonder what the real Bond would think of it all. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/21/stars-shaken-stirred-amazon-deal-james-bond

On June 12, I’ll be doing a talk for the Friends of Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine, about two of their favorite former summer residents, (the real) James Bond and his uncle, the artist Carroll  Tyson. The talk is part of the Friends’ “Pints for a Purpose” series of summer talks. With a surprise or two.  Stay tuned for more information.

Happy birthday to noted ornithologist and identity-theft victim James Bond, who was born on this day 125  years ago today. Bond was born at 1821 Pine Street, a four-story brick building that’s still standing. It is now apartments. Here’s a bit more background, from my book: Unlike a certain spy of the same name, went by “Jimmy” or “Jim” his entire life.  The Twentieth Century would be known as the American Century, shaped by two cataclysmic wars and incredible technological advances — from automobiles and airplanes to high-powered computers and a ubiquitous Internet — and Bond would live through nine decades of it.   The Bond family fortune was enormous, but for the youngster, it was ultimately far less significant than its location, Philadelphia, a city long known as the cradle of American ornithology.  Thanks to such pioneer ornithologists as author-illustrator Alexander Wilson, the legendary John James Audubon, author John Cassin, and Academy of Natural Sciences founding member Thomas Say, Bond grew up in an environment where birds and natural history were revered.  Jim Bond was born into a long line of U.S. Bonds that dates from as early as the 1600s.  His ancestors are said to include Thomas and Phineas Bond, who were among the founders of the American Philosophical Society, the University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Hospital.

On Tuesday evening, my Screech Owl Companion co-author Scott Weston were guests on “Bird Calls,” an NPR program out of Shreveport. Host Cliff Shackelford, Scott, and I could see one another on Zoom while we chatted. Above is a shot I grabbed with my iPhone while we were waiting for Scott to log in. That’s Kiara Lafitte of the great “Bird Calls” tech team in the foreground on the left, me on the right, and Cliff — a real screech owl aficionado and inventor of the Owl Shack nestbox — below with the earphones. I discuss The Real James Bond toward the end of the show. You can  hear the show  by going here: https://www.redriverradio.org/show/bird-calls/2024-08-12/bird-calls-orange-crowned-warbler and then clicking The segment with Scott and me starts at 6:30… If you look across the top, you can see where you can slide the tab and fast-forward through the opening (which is about birds mating for life — or not — and Orange Crowned Warblers:

While I was researching The Real James Bond, one of my best days was when I interviewed the great Cuban ornithologist Orlando Garrido in Havana. Orlando and Bond had a mutual admiration society, and Bond tried to promote Orlando’s career back in the 1950s. Bond was a curator at The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and they corresponded often. I also visited Orlando twice as part of a Caribbean Conservation Trust tour, and loved to sit in his office and hear Orlando talk about Cuba’s endemic birds—complete with taxidermied specimens. Orlando had an encyclopedic mind and was always willing to share his knowledge. His ornithological idols, he tole me, were Juan Gundlach and Jim Bond. I am including two photos from when I researched the book, including one from one of my visits (above), and one of Orlando and Jim Bond (below) Orlando was also a world-class tennis player as a young man, and I just have to share this anecdote from “The Race to Save the Lord God Bird,” a terrific book by Phillip Hoose: “Dr. Orlando Garrido, the Cuban biologist who saw the Ivory-bill in 1968, was at one time a world-class tennis player. But even in a big match, biology was never far from his mind. “In 1959, while representing Cuba in the Davis Cup tennis competition, Garrido was about to serve the ball to his Australian opponent when he noticed a huge beetle crawling slowly across the court in front of him. “It was a magnificent specimen. Raising his hand, Garrido signaled the referee to stop play, and as the crowd watched in amazement, he walked to the sidelines, found an empty tennis ball can, went back to the court, and carefully scooped up the insect and placed it inside. “Only when the lid was tightly secured did he walk back to resume play.” I’ve also included an article about Orlando and his tennis career. RIP, Orlando.